Customer Reviews

Triumph (Beyond Armageddon)

5 star:		(3)
4 star:		(5)
3 star:		(0)
2 star:		(1)
1 star:		(0)

 

 

Written during the height of the Cold War, Wylie provides a highly detailed description of nuclear annihilation. Like many (most?) novels of that generation, the Soviets start the thing (thanks to a maniacal Russian premier) and boy have they planned this thing out. Not only are basic nuke weapons used, but the Reds have all but ensured that NO ONE will survive in the United States ever again. They explode submerged nukes off both coasts to create super-radioactive sodium clouds, and later detonate cobalt devices. The fourteen folks living in a specially prepared Connecticut bunker are indeed the last people left alive in the US. The description of these folks' lives in the bunker is fairly well done, although it is unlikely -- given the degree of Soviet bombing -- that the devastation would be limited to just the northern hemisphere. (ON THE BEACH is probably more accurate in that such an amount of radioactivity would eventually make its deadly path to the southern hemisphere, too.) The ending is somewhat uplifting if not, again, implausible. Considering the degree of devastation and total rad count, it is much more likely that all the bunker inhabitants would eventually perish in their livable tomb.

I've been reading post-apocalyptic books since I was 15 and discovered On the Beach and Alas, Babylon at the local (tiny) library. Very few have lived up to the bar set by these two.

Triumph is right up there with them. I can't say that I liked the characters, but the description of the destruction wrought by nuclear war is incredibly detailed, descriptions that are generally glossed over in most post-apoc books. I appreciate that the "process" is included along with the interactions of the people left in the shelter after the end of civilization as we know it.

I highly recommend this book to anyone who is into EOTWAWKI themes. It's going to take a pretty damn good writer to surpass this one.

The book's original intent, one speculates, is to examine racial issues of people in tight quarters and in a post-apocalyptic setting. I can see that this would have had great interest and impact in the year it was written, 1963. But reading this in 2009, what struck me was the knowledge and sophistication the author possessed to address all of the related technical content: elaborate bomb shelter (U.S.150-200 million dollars in 1963 currency), the effects of nuclear strikes, not to mention the way he envisioned the catalyst and method of how the two superpowers would war.

The most gripping part of the book was a side story covering a few remaining U.S. naval forces and their Soviet counterparts who had prepared their own incredible shelters to survive. The "last ditch" strategy had me thinking about other books on nuclear war from that period that I believe more accurately portrayed military members reluctance to do any more damage after first strike. Here U.S. forces are portrayed as mindless order takers bent on revenge.

The anti-Soviet rhetoric speaks to the times though the enemy seems less menacing, all knowing, and relentlessly diabolical now that time has passed. Character development was so-so, most interesting is the mogul who anticipated so much in the building of his shelter. Inter-relationships were hard to get in to but the claustrophobic atmosphere was well communicated.

Triumph has introduced me to Wylie who is credited with inspiring Doc Savage with his book The Savage Gentleman, also Flash Gordon with When Worlds Collide, and incredibly, Superman with his work Gladiator. The latter I intend to pick up as the story behind the story is as intriguing.

The blurb describing the book is atrocious. The survivors in this story don't "seethe with hatred", the intent of the story isn't some liberal wet-dream of how nasty we all would be if locked in a room with people of other races or ethnic/economic backgrounds. It details the survival - at great cost and with great difficulty - of a mixed group that truly represents the best of us all, along with the realistic presence of bigotry and snobbish class distinction as expressed by some people. The true import is how well these people work together, pull together to not only survive but to rescue a few others who didn't die in the first nuclear exchange.

The stage is set by the creation of a very well planned bomb shelter designed and built at great cost by a wealthy businessman in Connecticut. The characters may be slightly shallow, but they are representative of a good cross-section of America - rich, poor, and middle class; white, black and Asian; educated and hardworking versus marginally schooled and wealthy layabout, even one man of dubious character who rises to the occasion and proves to be able to demonstrate virtues that might have escaped him in easier times and circumstances, and includes two children rescued when their parents have died.

The book's title concerns the triumph of humanity in this cross-section of America, and how they survive through working together for each other's benefit. One of the reviewers of this book opines that it is unrealistic, because he or she believes the entire world would have been rendered unfit for human life. Fortunately, Philip Wylie was a very intelligent and knowledgeable man, sought after by our government and various think-tanks of the fifties and sixties to consider the possible effects and results of nuclear warfare (he wrote several other books dealing with the topic). Mr. Wylie was aware that there was an excellent chance that there would NOT be much exchange of radioactivity between the north and south hemispheres due to the wind patterns at the equator blocking such exchange (the "doldrums" IIRC prevent much atmospheric exchange - but I am not an atmospheric scientist, nor would I trust most of the climate scientists we have been misled by in the past ten or fifteen years).

So, I believe it is quite possible that the countries that live south of the equator - New Zealand and Australia especially - might have gotten through an exchange between America and Russia without the kind of devastation or radioactive contamination that would occur to the north. Even if not, however, it is possible to suspend disbelief (as is required for most of the science-based movies these days) long enough to enjoy the triumph of spirit and determination as displayed by these survivors of a Northern Hemispheric nuclear war. An excellent book.

This was an intense but fascinating read. Written at the height of the Cold War, there is a strong anti-Soviet sentiment that may be a turn-off for some readers. Some of the details are fascinating -- the items this man thought to stock his nuclear bunker with are just astounding (roller skates? really?) -- while other details related to the human response to a bombing are sensible but sickening. The suspense continues up to nearly the last page -- will the group survive and be rescued, or will they die in their shelter? For those who can handle the psychological baggage of reading about the destruction of the entire northern hemisphere, this is a recommended title.

This is a dated but fascinating novel about an apocalyptic nuclear war and a group of Americans in a millionaire's elaborate nuclear shelter who deal with various issues of survival as weeks, months, and eventually longer goes by.

The psychological plot inside the shelter is balanced by a narrative of events in the world outside, sometimes brought by TV or radio reports from onlookers in the southern hemisphere, sometimes narratives of actions on surviving American ships and Russian bases.

Some of the behavior is well-plotted and psychologically apt, as when the know-it-all multi-millionaire who 'takes care of' his 'weak' alcoholic wife realizes that everyone knows that he had been hiding a mistress and goes into a funk. Although this is about a future that never was, it is still a book worth reading.

"Triumph" is the latest addition to Bison's series entitled "Beyond Armageddon." Devoted to reprinting science fiction and fantasy that deals with life after whatever "final battle" the authors choose, this series has returned a good deal of seminal work to print. It is an important and exciting part of modern publishing.<
Philip Wylie (1902-1971) is perhaps best remembered today for his "When Worlds Collide" (co-written with Edwin Balmer), also a part of the Bison series. Over the years, his somewhat erudite writing inspired a substantial portion of American popular culture. His "The Savage Gentleman" is generally considered the seed for Doc Savage, just as his "Gladiator" supposedly formed the idea behind Superman. Some writers have gone so far as to claim that Flash Gordon evolved from "When Worlds Collide."<
"Triumph," originally published in 1963, concerns World War III and its aftermath. At the time of its publication, atomic war was considered almost inevitable...and somewhat immediate. Wylie's description of that war in "Triumph" remains horrifying and sobering.<
As does the core of the book, which has to do with how human nature adapts to its circumstances while remaining essentially the same. It is unfortunate, Wylie emphasizes, that the destructive side of human nature will remain intact.<
Wylie's mix of characters is somewhat forced, almost like a menu of a modern "politically correct" cast list. The 14 survivors of the war - holed up inside a Connecticut mountain - include representatives of several races and all the economic classes. But Wylie's fine-tuned sense of knowing exactly what he wants to say rescues the novel from its own clichés.
Bison's series also contains Wylie's "The Disappearance" and "Gladiator."<

I bought this book years ago and must have read it a dozen times since then. It's probably time to buy a new copy since the original is falling apart.

With some in our world threatening destruction on the rest of us, this story gives hope that there are people who can work together to survive. No, not simply to survive, but to rise above racism and petty differences.

J. A. Buxton
Author of the following:
1,000 Words or Less - A collection of 52 short stories
and
Home of the Red Fox

It is not entirely fair to judge a book written in previous decades according to the current times. I will grant that.

But some readers like myself might find this book more than just dated. There's the unneeded use of the words negro and negress. The male black character is a house servant. The young black women is described as beautiful and sexually desirable by the older white male characters. There's a Chinese woman too and similar stereotypes occur there. It is all very annoying. The writer likes to talk a lot about the fantasy of older men getting to choose which of the young women they can bed while in the fallout shelter. And these are the "heroic" characters talking. Yeesh. To each his own, but the real question "Is this book any good in spite of all the dated references and ancient cultural practices?" No.

This is a rare instance where I decided not to finish a book. Just not worth slogging thru the author's ancient value system. I have read tons of sci-fi from all decades and rarely has a book stood out as so culturally dated as this one.